A year after playing at class-A Dunedin, he was out of the game with a degenerative eye condition, as evidenced by his 417 strikeouts in 1,239 at-bats.

“I had the eye problem, plus I was learning how to hit the slider and I came to find out a few years later I was diabetic, that probably didn’t help, it wasn’t common for kids,” said the senior Davis. “That’s not a big deal now.”

The Jays scouts who saw the teen Davis compare him to Kenny Lofton, which explains why there were raging arguments last week in the press lounge at Rogers Centre: Who was better — Devon White or Lofton?

MLB Network compared Davis to Hall of Famer Joe Morgan.

Easy.

D.J. was over at a friend’s house Monday night while Wayne and stepmom Audrey were “laying low” in Wiggins (pop. 3,849), located between Hattiesburg and Gulfport, the area former Minnesota Twins outfielder Matt Lawton and former Jays outfielder (Freeway) Freddie Lewis grew up.

“The great thing that will come out of this is that D.J. is going to wear the uniform I wore,” Davis said. “Let me ask you something: Do they still have a club in Medicine Hat?”

Nope. One rookie club in Vancouver, another in Bluefield, managed by Dennis Holmberg.

“Dennis? Dennis is still around, my word,” said Davis, now 46.

Asked the most amazing thing he has seen his son do, father listed off a few: “He can flat run down line drives, he chased two down at a New York Mets workout, most people there, including me and the umpire were shaking their heads. We had to wait for the ump to gather himself, he couldn’t restart the game.”

In 2011, D.J. helped save a playoff game with a game-winning hit.

“He’s a quick runner, an eight runner on a 2-to-8 scale, a top of the order type of guy,” Jays scouting director Andrew Tinnish told reporters in a conference call. “We compared him to Loften, but with more strength.”

Under the new Basic Agreement, the Jays have a budget of $8,830,800 to spend on its 14 picks in the first 10 rounds.

General manager Alex Anthopoulos, assistant GM Tony La Cava and pro scouting director Perry Minasian have seen a few top players.

The next level are Dana Brown, former scouting director of the first-place Washington Nationals, special assistant to Anthopoulos, and Chuck LaMarr, former GM of the Tampa Bay Rays, Tinnish’s special assistant.

And then come the men who wake up and check their phones to read the name on the Courtyard Marriott phone — to find out what city they are in between February and May because they travel so much: National cross checkers Dean Decillis, Mike Mangan and Marc Tramuta.

And not least of all regional crosscheckers Tom Burns, Dan Cholowsky, Steve Miller, Tim Rooney and Rob St. Julien. They’ve been holed up for a week.

With their second first-round pick the Jays selected 5-foot-9, 185-pounder from Long Island fanned 290 in 220 innings.

“He’s capable of starting or relieving, I saw him out of the bullpen with Team USA when he didn’t give up a run,” said Tinnish. “And I saw him start this year, as far as a college pitchers go, he’s advanced.Physically, Stroman reminds you of a Tom Gordon, 91-98 MPH, big time competitor.”

We asked him who was his favourite outfielder at Myrtle Beach ... Mark Whiten or Junior Felix?

Davis laughed, and laughed and laughed ... for maybe 30 seconds.

“Well, now, goodness gracious, there are a couple of names I haven’t heard in a few years,” Davis said. “Those guys had some qualities that the average guy didn’t. I guess if we were up a run, we wanted them to hit the ball to Whiten ... he’d throw the guy out at the plate with that arm.

“And if we needed a game-winning hit the guy we wanted to be at the plate was Junior.”